Question about Sunshine Kids products

This may get kinda rambly, but hear me out please.

I was just on the SK site and clicked the products tab and had this thought process.

I didn't realize SK makes all those things.

http://www.skjp.com/products/index.php?v=cat&cid=14&name=Car Seat Accessories

So then I got to thinking....

Sunshine Kids makes the Radian car seat. It's a nice, safe seat. You can buy a Radian 65 and use a Comfy-Soft and it's ok because it's still a SK product, right?

What about all the other SK products? We aren't supposed to use aftermarket products like mats under the seats, extra head inserts, and the Mighty-Tite. Or is it ok as long as you have a SK seat? Does it fall under the same ideology as the Comfy-Soft?

One could easily argue that since SK produces all these products, as long as you have an SK seat the aftermarket add ons should be fine as long as they too are produced by SK.

However, most here agree that these additions aren't safe. One could point out that the Comfy-Soft is used in the RN 80 and that's is the difference between it and the other products, but the argument is just as compelling the other direction for the average parent. Company makes car seat, car seat is safe; company makes add ons, add ons must be safe too.

Why would a company that goes to such great lengths to make Radian seats so safe market these other unsafe products?

I realize this may be a bit controversial. I'm honestly not trying to start anything or offend anyone. I'm just trying to figure this stuff out.

I want to know too! Will be following this one

When asked, SKJP actually specifically allows the Mighty Tite, the seat protector they make (whatever that is), and all their other products because they have been tested with the Radian. They will not void the warranty on the Radian (though they probably will on any other seat.) Crazy, huh? So if you're in a crash and your kid is injured because the seat fails because of the Mighty Tite and/or seat protector you used with your Radian, I guess they will accept liability because they approved the products... Who knows.

I think they started out selling accessories before they made car seats, from what I have read. But, I mean, Dorel makes the Avenue, which we like. They also make aftermarket car seat products. And if you use Eddie Bauer products with Eddie Bauer seats, you may even be able to get the manufacturer to approve it. It's not unique to SKJP.

There is no warranty that a seat will actually protect your child. They will not accept liability for any injuries, unless you can PROVE that the seat was defective (or in this case, that the add-on product caused it to fail). Good luck proving that.

You got me thinking too

I know the mighty tite is bad. But.... they have this crash testing info on their site. Is it because the MT slowly stretchs the seatbelt over time, and the short time it's used for a test doesn't give it enough time to wear on the seatbelt?

pixels99 said:

There is no warranty that a seat will actually protect your child. They will not accept liability for any injuries, unless you can PROVE that the seat was defective (or in this case, that the add-on product caused it to fail). Good luck proving that.

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I agree with this. I read somewhere that there was a push to call carseats "child safety seats" and the manufactureres fought hard against it, so they are only "child restraints".

Yes, but if you CAN prove (or think you can) that it didn't perform as it should have, they will probably settle to keep it out of court. Not that you want to have to go through that, but from what I understand that is what usually happens. They know a jury will find for the person with the injured/dead kid over the company almost every time.

To be honest, the fact that SK makes some of those aftermarket products does make some of us a little ....wary? I think sometimes you have to agree to disagree on some things, and still trust on others. I trust the radians and monterey are good seats, while being very skeptical that some of those aftermarket products are safe.

bobandjess99 said:

To be honest, the fact that SK makes some of those aftermarket products does make some of us a little ....wary? I think sometimes you have to agree to disagree on some things, and still trust on others. I trust the radians and monterey are good seats, while being very skeptical that some of those aftermarket products are safe.

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That is exactly how I feel about it.

I'm fairly certain that the engineer of the Radian has said no to all the after market products SK sells aside from the comfy soft which has been specifically crash tested with their seats.

Here's my take on it... Sunshine Kids is a distributor/manufacturer. The Radian was designed by an engineer, who then went looking for a company to sponsor and market it. Enter Sunshine Kids... Dave didn't design the mighty tite or the after market mats, and I would hazard a guess that he wasn't putting a mighty tite on the crash sled belt before running crash tests... The belt that holds a carseat in during a crash test is actually tightened to a standardized tension - so there's nothing chance-like about it. Adding in the mighty tite would change that factor a bit so when it comes to the tests they perform to determine that the seat meets standards, they wouldn't have it on right from the start. They could do extra tests with it on there just to see what happens, but I don't know that it would mean much given that there's no "control" for how tight the average parent will use it.

So at any rate, I would still recommend against it. Just because something is manufactured by the same company as who makes the carseat doesn't mean that it's tested with their seats, or that they want you using it with their seats. And considering that in pretty much all cases the aftermarket product tries to fix a basic compatibility issue, there is more at risk than just damage to the seatbelts...

This being said, I was recently exposed to the idea of cutting a seat protector mat so that it didn't influence the belt path of the carseat or access to the lower anchors or seatbelt. For a parent intent on using a seat protector, this at least mitigates some of the risk and especially when the seat protector doesn't have material in it that's going to compress, it's not necessarily a huge deal. I still recommend against them and don't like to see them used, but for parents intent on using them, at least there's a way to make them safer...

So anyways, those are my thoughts. SK customer service has been known to hedge on advice on things in the past, so even if they are saying it's ok to use a mighty tite, I most definitely wouldn't do it... Technically speaking, a mighty tite is altering the vehicle seatbelt system itself. Calling the vehicle manufacturer and asking if they allow the use of ratcheting mechanisms on their seatbelts to tighten them would give the ultimate answer as to if the mighty tite is a good idea in relation to the seatbelts.

There are quite a few people here who won't buy a sunshine kids product because of all the aftermarket stuff they sell. I was resistant to buying one for that reason and the fact that I already had experience installing a radian and I knew what a PITA it was to install.

I really wanted a seat that would allow me to do 3 in a row though so I bought a radian and I have not regretted it and it is now being used as a main seat. I also bought the monterey and have been very happy with it.

The Radian was designed by an engineer who had previously worked for Britax. The Mitey-Tite and other child-killers, er, aftermarket products, were produced by Sunshine Kids prior to his involvement.

Regardless of whether they have been 'approved' for use with the Radian, they STILL damage the seatbelt and thus simply are not safe.

Safety 1st (Dorel...makers of Cosco/Eddie Bauer/Safety 1st/Maxi Cosi)... cranks out a huge number of aftermarket products...we still trust that the Scenera is safe. Graco has a bunch of things (or did, maybe they didn't sell well, they seem to be mostly gone) that they claim were crash tested..so no, I'm really not worried about it personally that SK makes a bunch of other things (the Mighty Tite was definitely their first product... I still have one I bought in 2001, it works like a *miracle*, I'll be honest, but even then it felt weird, so I never really used it :thumbsdown.
Anyway, just echoing the 'don't worry' crowd... I use my Radian happily, the MT is at the bottom of my carseat junk box, waiting for some use...it is an incredibly well built piece of machinery, you can give it that much